USA women stay unbeaten by flattening France

BARUERI, Brazil -- Diana Taurasi scored 15 points and Tina
Thompson added 12 to help the undefeated United States overpower
France 76-41 on Sunday in the second round of the Women's World
Basketball Championship.

The United States is 5-0 overall, but credited with a 4-0 mark
in Group F because only first-round games against advancing teams
count in the second-round standings.

The victory pushed the United States' World Championship winning
streak, which dates to the 1994 bronze-medal game, to 24, and also
extended the string of victories in the Olympics and Worlds to 48.

"I would say France is stronger defensively than anyone else
we've seen," USA coach Anne Donovan said. "They mix it up a
little bit with the full-court pressure, the trapping, full-court
man-to-man. So they kept the pressure on our point guard bringing
the ball up. I thought they did a great job defensively. They
forced a lot of turnovers, which has been our focus, not to turn
the ball over."

Taurasi had 10 points in the third quarter and the Americans
outscored France 23-12 overall in the period to push its lead to 20
points at 59-39. Taurasi made all three of her 3-point attempts,
while the United States limited France to 22.1-percent shooting.

"I thought it was a really good game for us," Taurasi said.
"Obviously, France has been playing really good basketball, but we
came out in the first quarter and dictated the tempo from the
get-go, which is what we wanted to do. France didn't go away in the
second quarter, they played really tough. We put emphasis on that
third quarter and I think that's what put us over the top in the
game."

The Americans will finish second-round play Monday against the
Czech Republic, second in Group F at 3-1 after an 85-83 victory
over Russia.

Eva Viteckova led the Czech Republic with 25 points.

"The Czech team is probably one of the toughest matchups for
anyone in the tournament," Taurasi said. "They're so big, they
can shoot at any position so it's going to be a tough matchup for
us defensively. Defensively we're going to have to continue doing
what we do and that's get out on the break and make good decisions.
Tomorrow's going to be a good test for us going into the medal
rounds and we want to close it out with a good statement."

The top four teams in each of the two second-round groups will
advance to the quarterfinals, with the Group F winner facing the
fourth-place team in Group E.

France is third in Group F, while Russia, Cuba and China are
tied for fourth at 1-3. In the other game Sunday, China beat Cuba
73-70.

Australia tops Group E at 4-0 following an 82-73 win over Brazil.
Brazil, Argentina, Lithuania and Spain are all 2-2 and Canada is
0-4. On Sunday, Lithuania beat Argentina 62-47 and Spain routed
Canada 85-57.